This week we were showed how copywriting shines through TVC / radio ad. TVC is, in a way, an art form of its own. It can evoke various emotional responses within the short amount of time. Radio ad is a lot more cost effective and efficient in time. With copywriting in TVC / radio ad, you have to say it, explain it and repeat it (so that it becomes memorable), all within a minute or less.

To end this class, we had to make a radio ad to promote martabak manis to foreigner! I came up with a dialogue scenario rather than monologue and the challenge is to describe martabak to foreigner / find Western equivalent to it.

*Traffic sounds can be heard in the background, 2 man are idly strolling on the side of the street*

A: Have you ever tasted something so sweet, rich, moist and buttery that it just melts in your mouth?

B: You mean whip cream?

A: It’s denser and it’s got a rich texture!

B: Like a sponge cake?

A: Even more moist and it comes in all these different flavours.

B: Cupcakes?

A: Even better.

B: What? No, nothing is better than cupcakes.

A: Wanna bet on it?

B: Well, what is it?

A: (Mas, martabak manis nya 2 ya.) Here, you can try it for yourself.

“Sweet, rich and moist, martabak manis is Indonesia’s traditional heritage and the first thing you’d want to taste when you land on Indonesia”

B: *swear word* This is so good!

A: *under his breath* I’m so winning this bet.

Week 3

This week we continued working on advertising our imaginary product. My chosen imaginary product was the personal assistant which I ended up naming APA (accessorised personal assistant). As a part of research, we had to find 5 ads that are potential competitors to our product.

APA basically works like Iron Man’s Jarvis, and the product consists of a wearable (can be anything – wristwatch, earring, choker, etc) which is paired with a pair of earphones. APA helps you with your day to day activity, from something as simple as deciding what to have for lunch and paying your water/electric bills, to helping you with your client presentation. It basically speak through the earphones, assess environment, collect data and connect to internet through the accessorised wearable.

The tagline that I came up with for my product was “Wear the Future”. I wanted to make a reference about Jarvis in Iron Man, but was reminded that not everyone would understand it. However, the reference can be played into the Twitter / Instagram caption, to support the tagline & ad copy in the poster. I end up changing the tagline to “Wear the Future Now” to support the ad copy better & so that it doubles as a call-to-action.

The approach that I’m taking will be more of a compare & contrast, between APA users & non-users. It’ll show how much life will be easier if one uses APA – you don’t need to write down schedules in your daily planner or phone calendar anymore; APA will do it for you in an instant. No more unfolding and reading newspaper in shaky bus; APA will read the morning news for you – ones that you’d find most relevant. Visualisation-wise, there’ll probably be some floating texts which indicates APA’s speech.

(Somewhat like in BBC Sherlock but tidier, where they show floating text on the screen indicating Sherlock’s train of thought & deductions).